Drafting Darksteel With Ben Rubin

Brian David-Marshall

en Rubin did not know it but he was sitting down with his next round's opponent drafting to his left. Both he and Alex Alepin were undefeated yesterday. Ben was the winner of the last Grand Prix in this country. The last tournament that Alex won was a Grand Prix Trial just this past Saturday. Despite his relative anonymity to the world at large, Alex is a fixture in the Bay Area Magic scene. He has been to Pro Tour several times and has been waiting to ratchet his game up to the next level. His 8-0 run yesterday was a good start.

The two players were unwittingly cooperative in the draft. Ben took a first pick Somber Hoverguard over two viable green cards. Alex took Skeleton Shard over Domineer and the two players steered clear of each other's colors for the rest of the draft. Alex took One Dozen Eyes with his second pick while Ben c=found nothing affinity-ish in his next pack and took an unexciting Bottle Gnomes.

Ben was happier to see a Neurok Spy in his third pack. He took a Silver Myr and a Seat of the Synod before nearly falling out of his chair in the sixth pack when he saw another Neurok Spy waiting for him. Alex was the beneficiary of a pair of Consume Spirits and a Predator's Strike. He did not find any artifact creatures to exploit with his Shard but his deck was shaping up as a reasonable green-black build.

Ben was rewarded with an eighth pick Thoughtcast and a smattering of late artifact lands including Great Furnace. He seemed especially pleased to nab a thirteenth pick Overide. His deck needed some of the staple creatures for affinity-Myr Enforcer and perhaps another Hoverguard and he would only have one pack to find them.

There wasn't much waiting for Ben in those packs and he had to take another Frogmite with his fourth pick. He did manage a Wizard Replica, Aether Spellbomb, and a fistful of artifact lands but was lacking the Myr Enforcers he wanted to make his deck powerful.

After the draft I asked Ben about his deck. He was disappointed that there were not more of the high end affinity creatures in the early packs and was wary about his limited removal spells. "That is why I had to take the Psychic Overloads over Spire Golem. I also really like Arcbound Hybrid but I had to take Echoing Truth instead."

"I did think that more Behemoths would come back which is why I took the Blinkmoth Nexus over it. I may have been the only player drafting blue at the table-there can't be more than two of us at the table."

As Ben started to lay his deck out he was pleased with his five artifact lands and Blinkmoth Nexus. He was not playing the low land count decks of PT Amsterdam though. He had only one Myr and few Spellbombs. "I am playing seventeen lands…I just can't figure out what the last card in is going to be."

I asked him if he regretted the Shatter over the Somber Hoverguard and he was definitive on that pick, "That was standard operating procedure. The last pack though…I don't know my pick orders. Like do I take Spire Golem over War Boar? It beats me."